Fuel-Efficient Distributed Path Planning for Spacecraft Formation Flying

This work introduces a novel distributed path planning algorithm for multiple spacecraft operating in close proximity. This study builds on the geometric path planner the other previously developed. The aforementioned geometric planner is a centralized algorithm that leveraged theoretical foundations from nonlinear geometric control to generate fuel-efficient and collision-free trajectories for spacecraft flying in formation. The path planning problem is reframed into a partial differential equation whose solution is geodesic (path of least resistance) of the solution manifold. This study distributes the computation of the path planner to every agent in the system. The resulting algorithm allows for application to large constellations while retaining the fuel-efficiency characteristics of the geometric path planner. The fast convergence of the optimization scheme, coupled with the low/distributed computation requirement, makes the distributed path planner suitable for online implementation.